Buoyed by an overwhelming response to the initial public offer (IPO) of Coal India, the government is working on a plan to schedule the FPOs of Maharatna companies SAIL, IndianOil and ONGC in the last quarter of this fiscal year. With all the three issues are expected to come out after the December break, there are chances that one of the issues might not come in this fiscal year. A government official said, ?We are planning to bring out the three issues after the December break…we will give a break of 20-25 days between all the issues.? Considering that government has cautiously stayed away from crowding the market, it looks like the ONGC issue might not come this year.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has made it clear on more than one occassion that the government is not planning to exceed the budgeted disinvestment target of Rs 40,000 crore for this financial year. With chances of a possible liquidity crunch due to many issues, the government might wait for the next fiscal for issues that are yet to get a cabinet apporval.
The offical added that the government was working on the cabinet note for the Indian Oil Corporation issue. The note will be sent to the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs in next two weeks. The government is expecting Indian Oil Corporation issue to be bigger than the Coal India issue. It is expected to garner nearly Rs 20,000 crore. With an impressive line up of issues clearly, government is facing a problem of plenty. The government has already got an approval for the FPO of Steel Authority of india. After CIL, Power Grid follow on issue will be coming out on November 9, Manganese Ore India will be the next issue. The power major is planning to raise over Rs 8,000 crore by issuing fresh equity of 10% of existing paid up share capital and offer for share sale of 10% of existing paid up share capital by the Centre.